Transgender inmate sues prison to get hormone treatments restored

Ashley Diamond, a transgender woman who has been incarcerated for three years, is suing to be allowed to resume hormone therapy. Before being imprisoned, Diamond had been taking the treatments since she was 17.

Diamond had been receiving hormone treatments for over two decades before she was arrested in 2012 and was sentenced to 11 years for burglary and theft.

Now, Diamond looks nothing like her booking photo. Her deep voice has returned, as has facial hair that she has never dealt with before. “Ashley sees photos like that as proof of her lack of medical care, but it’s a painful reminder,” Chinyere Ezie, an attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center, said.

A 2014 booking image of Ashley Diamond, an incarcerated transgender woman, after she was denied hormone therapy for two years by the Georgia Department of Corrections.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has filed a suit on her behalf that would push for a restoration of her hormone treatment, better training for the staff for transgender inmates and improved living conditions.

“This is (for) more than just hormone treatment,” Diamond, who has been incarcerated in several male penal facilities since 2012, said in a statement. “This is about gross human rights violations. Three years of torture is enough.”

Although Diamond looks forward to one day being released, she believes her current situation amounts to nothing less than a death sentence.